ABOVE With speeds of 30kts and more
Wild Oat’s XI relished the fast running
conditions of the 2017 Rolex Sydney
Hobart Race.
LEFT Comanche owner Jim Cooney
reputedly paid $10 million to buy
Comanche only weeks before the race
and seen here receiving the Rolex Line
Honours watch.Oats XIhad infringed it leaving Sydney
Heads ... but then jury chairman John
Rountree delivered the bombshell news
of the penalty: “Wild Oatsin lieu of
a disqualification is penalised a time
penalty of one hour to her elapsed time
in accordance with Sailing Instructions
20.1b and SI 22.1.”
A stony silence greeted this
news from the gathered media and
spectators, while a chastened Richards
faced the press along with owner
Sandy Oatley. “Obviously, we’re very
disappointed, but the international jury
had a job to do. They saw the incident
the way they saw it, we saw it a little bit
differently, but the result is the result
and we have to respect the decision of
the jury.”THE BLACK ART OF
PENALTY
Most controversial for many onlookers
was the size of the penalty, which
could have ranged from five minutes
up to disqualification, with a largepercentage time factor the most likely
outcome in between. “Peanuts” was
how former America’s Cup sailor
Gordon Ingate quantified the one-hour
penalty. “In the old days they were
disqualified,” he added.
Experienced sailors who I chatted
to on the docks echoed the same
sentiments. But former Wild Oats
XI crewman and veteran sailor Peter
Shipway saw it differently. “You could
argue long and hard whether it should
have been an hour, or five minutes or
10 minutes. I really don’t understand
how they arrived at one hour,” the
veteran of 31 Sydney Hobarts told the
ABC. “It’s quite interesting, because
the jury knew what the time difference
between the two boats was (
minutes). If they hadn’t known that,
then would they have applied the one-
hour penalty?”
The CYCA Race Sailing Instructions
allows for plenty leeway as well:
“20.1(b) A boat which is found after
a protest hearing to have infringeda rule of Part 2 of the RRS after the
Preparatory Signal and prior to the boat
clearing the relevant sea mark (Mark Z/
Mark Y), shall receive a time penalty of
not less than five minutes added to the
boat’s elapsed time.”
This paragraph is wide ranging
and some say fairly ambiguous given
the possibilities for carnage, so is
something that will be debated and
reflected upon. The commodore of the
Cruising Yacht Club, John Markos said
that while he respected the decision he
was surprised by the size of the penalty.
“Most everyone that was talking about
it was thinking that if they had found
against Wild Oats that it might be
minutes, a number of minutes,” he
said.
Cynics may say that elaborately
televised sporting events shouldn’t be
ruined by archaic rules and penalties
yet these rules are the most basic
manifestation of conducting vessels
safely at sea, but their penalties are
perhaps still a black art.Rolex Sydney Hobart
20 tradeaboat.com.au